The U.S. Coast Guard also has dispatched a team to inspect the bridge, WAFB reports. It is not clear when the bridge will reopen.

Officials keeping watch over New Orleans levees have not reported any errant vessels on the river, though the matter is a top priority.

"One of the big issues that we're facing is motor vessles, barges in particular, we need to keep them off the levees," Susan Macclay of the West Bank levee authority said Thursday during a news conference.

All vessels are supposed to stay 180 feet away from the slope pavement, she said.

City Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson on Thursday barge owners and operators who don't moor their vessels that the city will sink all untethered vessles.